Joining the vCenter Server Appliance to an Active Directory Domain in vSphere 6 is much different from in previous versions. Previously, you would use the Virtual Appliance Management Interface (VAMI) by navigating to the FQDN of the server over port 5480. In vSphere 6.0, you need to perform the steps through the vSphere Web Client. Once you know the new process, the task is relatively easy and quick. Note: You can only join a PSC or VCSA with an embedded PSC to an AD domain. Step 1. Navigate to the vSphere Client Web Client https://FQDN/vsphere-client Step 2. […]

vCenter Single Sign-On Setup Wizard ended prematurely because of an error Ah, the famous 1603 error code when installing or upgrading the PSC or SSO server. Unfortunately, this is not a clear cut error code, nor is there one way to fix the issue. In fact this error code is so generic you typically need to review other log files to understand what may be happening. That being said, I wanted to compile a one stop shop for troubleshooting this error code, what errors the logs show and any resolutions I have found. The typical error messages […]

vCenter Server Blank Inventory After reinstalling vCenter Server 6.0 using the same FQDN or IP on the same machine, the vSphere Web Client’s inventory is blank. To resolve this issue, you will need to follow the steps below. Step 1. Navigate to the Managed Object Browser using a web browser: https://FQDN/cm/mob Step 2. Select Search

Error 1009 in vSphere Web Client An error that frequently comes up in the vSphere Web Client is Error 1009. This issue occurs in vCenter Server 5.1, 5.5, and 6.0 when navigating through inventory. Typically when this error message pops up you have to refresh your entire session. This issue is almost always caused by cached objects with bad references. These cached objects are stored in the SerenityDB folder under the users name, if by chance any of the cached objects are deleted, but the cache still exists, you get bad Object ID references which will crash the […]

Let’s say something happens to your existing external Platform Services Controller (PSC) and it becomes unrecoverable, if this is the case you can always spin up a new PSC and repoint your vCenter Server to the new external PSC! It’s actually very simple to accomplish this task. All you will need to do is run the following commands after installing the new PSC. vCenter Server Appliance 1. Log into the vCenter Server appliance as root 2. Run the following command: /usr/lib/vmware-vmafd/bin/vmafd-cli set-dc-name –server-name localhost -dc-name <FQDN_of_new_PSC> 3. Recycle all services in the vCenter appliance by running the […]

Listing SSO Services Listing services in Single Sign-On is much different in vSphere 6 than it was in vSphere 5.5 or 5.1. Previously, you would run the ssolscli.cmd but now, you will need to run a Python script called lstool.py. The command to list all of the services registered with SSO 6 is below, you will need to open a cmd prompt and run this from the Platform Services Controller (PSC). “C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\python\python.exe” “C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\VMware Identity Services\lstool\scripts\lstool.py” list –url http://localhost:7080/lookupservice/sdk Once that is complete you should see output similar to the following: […]

SCP into PSC or VCSA I just wanted to provide everyone with a quick problem and resolution I found when I was attempting to upload files via SCP to my PSC or VCSA. Every time I attempted to connect through SSH, or WinSCP I would receive the following error messages. Unknown command: `scp’ or Host is not communicating for more than 15 seconds. If the problem repeats, try turning off ‘Optimize connection buffer size’. This occurs because the login bash for root is /bin/appliancesh. To resolve this, you will need to change the login shell for root to /bin/bash using the […]

vSphere 6.0 has finally arrived! Many engineers and architects are wondering what are the new recommended topologies for the Platform Services Controller (PSC) and vCenter Server. I have compiled a list of recommended topologies in vSphere 6.0. For starters, you can think of the PSC as Single Sign-On + more. It provides the same functionality as SSO would have, but has additional services and functionality built in. All of these topologies can utilize either a Windows deployment, or an appliance for the PSC and or vCenter Server. vCenter Server with an Embedded PSC Multiple vCenter Servers with an External PSC Multiple PSCs […]

vSphere 6.x Architecture vSphere Certificate replacement and implementation is much easier than Center Server 5.1 or 5.5. In the past, you would have to replace each out of the endpoint certificates, for example vCenter Server, Single Sign On, Inventory Service, Web Client, and so forth. To simplify the process, VMware now uses a Reverse HTTP Proxy which will route traffic accordingly, meaning we only need to replace one certificate, instead of replacing all them in the previous version. There are 4 Solution Users in vSphere 6.x – vpxd, vpxd-extention, vsphere-webclient, and machine and you can replace each solution user […]